Too Much God?

Here's our basic philosopy:

I don't think it's very different from most of the visitors to AWTY, actually. In a nutshell, we love our children and want to be together forever with them in Heaven someday. If the children grow up knowing how much God loves them, they want to love Him back. If they love Him back, they want to know Him and serve Him. It's our job to provide the best atmosphere we can for this to happen in our home.

Here's how we try to do that:

* By consistently teaching all the rules and aids to leading holy lives, especially the frequent reception of the Sacraments.
* By reading and having available wholesome books.
* By providing the tools and instruction for learning, without making it drudgery.
* By closely monitoring possible negative influences, including the media and dangerous company and places.
* By teaching the value of purity, through modesty (dress), self respect (behaviour), and the love of the Immaculate Heart.
* By appealing to all the senses in wholesome ways ~ through music, games, and a beautiful and orderly home.
* By having lots of fun! Holiness does not have to be dull!

Is this God-centric philosophy overkill? I read a Catholic mother complain once about how she thought it was unnecessary, and perhaps even harmful to a child to "harp" on the Faith. But, if "harping" means directing every subject, every experience toward a lesson in faith, the popes counsel us that we should, indeed, harp. Pope Pius XI, in His Encyclical on Christian Education, agrees with Pope St. Pius X, saying:

Whatever a Christian does even in the order of things of earth, he may not overlook the supernatural; indeed he must, according to the teaching of Christian wisdom, direct all things towards the supreme good as to his last end; all his actions, besides, in so far as good or evil in the order of morality, that is, in keeping or not with natural and divine law, fall under the judgment and jurisdiction of the Church.

I think it's a common misconception with some that "too much Faith" will produce the opposite result intended, that children will get sick of hearing about God interspersed through math and science, and that a lot of eye-rolling will go on behind the teacher's back. (I was saddened to read this idea in a Catholic homeschooling mother's blog.)

I guess this certainly could happen if a child felt God was being crammed down his throat. But, how could a child feel this way if, from his infancy, his most nurtured moments occurred before a crucifix, if Heavenly birthdays were celebrated with as much cake and joy as family days, if conversations of love and affection always ended up referring to Heavenly Loved Ones, too?

I guess the question is "Can you have too much love in your life?"

This is the story of my life...

I've been reading a lot of wonderfully descriptive day plans and organization-focused blog posts lately and gleaning so many good ideas from them. I think the new year turns our minds in this direction, doesn't it? Streamlining. Focusing. Prioritizing. But, I've been sort of avoiding writing my own post detailing our daily routines. And, I wasn't sure exactly why I didn't want to do it, until it hit me today.

Today, in the Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett, we read a beautifully written description of the Wright brothers' first successful flight at Kitty Hawk. We all remarked on how well written the story was, and how it piqued our interst, even though we are a bunch of girls with very little interest in aeronautics. A little later, after lunch, I was sweeping the floors, thinking about what made that story so good, so much fun to read, and I was hard-put to lay my finger on one thing. Great descriptions. Appealed to the senses. Graceful flow of words. Informative. Kept our interest. Led up smoothly to the climax. All these things, yes, but more than each of these things.
And, that's when the connection came to me.

We have a basic routine to every day; we do have a chore sharing regimine and homeschooling guidelines that we follow. And they're important to the efficient running of our lives, but they don't tell our story. We're a homeschooling family and though that fact is important, it's not essential to our character. We have a large family, but we don't hang our hats on that. We run a fairly orderly home, especially for the numbers that shelter here, but that isn't what we're all about, either. All these things describe the structure of our story. First person, limited omniscient, prose. But, though they support and reflect it, they are not the theme of the story.

Here's the theme: We're a Catholic Family.

Everything else comes from that fact. In creating our home, we've always tried to make that the background, the foundation of everything we do, philosophically and physically. Every decision we make, from how and where we school our children to what we eat at mealtimes (esp. on Fridays and vigils) reflects our Catholicism. How we dress, how we decorate our home, the books we buy, the movies and programs we watch are chosen through a Catholic decision making process. We want our Faith to BE the very air we breathe. It IS who we are.

This is a subject I can warm up to easier than listing out our homeschooling schedule (Though I may eventually do that. Who knows?).

Tomorrow I'll jot down our family philosophy, which serves as a loose rule for our lives. Right now, I'm going out with my two sisters, to celebrate my baby sister, Donna's birthday. So, I've got to get a move on! But here's a thought to leave you on:

Do you think that Faith can permeate too much into family life? It's apparently a common belief among some! I'm thinking about that concept, too, and will tell you tomorrow what I come up.